Graves land talks continue as family renews rezoning push

Talks between Beaufort County officials and the Graves family over a piece of land along the Okatie River have reached a new development, but differences remain over the sale price both sides are willing to accept.

The county has been negotiating the purchase of 28 acres along the eastern banks near the intersection of U.S. 278 and S.C. 170 for preservation but rejected an offer from the family in September to sell 10 of the acres for $10.5 million and conserve the other 18 in exchange for rezoning the rest of the 141-acre tract to allow for greater commercial development.

County attorney Josh Gruber earlier balked at tying the land sale to rezoning, questioning the legality and wisdom of the term, but the 28 acres have now been separated from the remainder, said Jim Scheider, their attorney. The two sides are in agreement that the sale and rezoning will proceed together, but the family isn’t demanding rezoning as a condition of selling, Scheider added.

“We didn’t want the appearance that one was predicated on the other, and even though we’ve agreed they’ll move along parallel paths we wouldn’t sell without the other coming along in tandem,” he said.

The Graves family, which has owned the Pepper Hall tract for about 130 years, has pushed for a zoning change several times over the past decade. Most recently, the County Council Natural Resources Committee unanimously voted down any change in April, citing environmental concerns. The state closed the Okatie to shellfish harvesting in the mid- 1990s because of rising bacteria levels.

Current zoning allows up to 57 houses and 5,000 square feet of commercial space, and the rezoning denied earlier this year asked for another 400 houses and 1.4 million total square feet of commercial space.

But the family kicked off another rezoning attempt last Thursday before the Planning Commission’s southern Beaufort County subcommittee with an offer to cap commercial space at 700,000 square feet and limit new buildings to 75,000 square feet to address past concerns about the proliferation of “big box” stores and the scale of commercial development, Scheider said. It’s not a formal precondition to rezoning but a “pledge,” he added.

“It is a commitment by Robert graves, since it’s his property, that he will incorporate those terms in a subsequent development agreement with the county,” he said.

Awaiting a traffic study, county staff still have to weigh in on the latest proposal, which the full Planning Commission is expected to begin reviewing next month.

The wide disparity between the county’s and the family’s appraisal of the land value remains, though.

The county valued the 28 acres at $5.65 million, about half of the $10.5 million offer from the Graves family, and the entire tract at $13.5 million.

The two sides met Thursday to bridge the divide, said county attorney Josh Gruber, adding he’s not aware of any new meeting scheduled. Asked whether the county might pay more than its appraisal, Gruber left the door open but stressed that ultimate authority lies with County Council.

“In theory, is it a possibility? I don’t want to say absolutely not because it’s in the realm of possibility,” he said.

The two sides are now working “in a collaborative fashion to review numbers” with “several different outside sources,” Scheider said.

“We want something in writing for both parties, and we think the value is somewhere between ours and theirs,” he said.

Acting Council Chairman Paul Sommerville declined to speak to potential support among Council members for going beyond appraised value but said he can’t remember a similar instance and doing so might set a bad precedent for future deals.

“It’s always a tough sell when you’re asking more than appraised value,” he said. “You’ve got to convince six Council members, and they have to be able to defend it to their constituents.”

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